Fr. Greg

After looking at ways for us to focus at Mass, let's now examine ways that we may participate at Mass. The Second Vatican Council, in its document Sacrosanctum Concilium, used a pair of words that were a large part of what we call the Liturgical Movement that took place throughout the 20th century. Now we don’t have a ton of time to examine that movement within the Church, but what we do need to know is that it greatly shaped the reform of the Liturgy. These words are actuoso participatio.

This week, as it seems that this is a good point to continue a series, we will be looking at how to focus at Mass. I often hear that people struggle to focus, daydream, and get distracted at Mass. That's ok! We are only human, and we should do the past we can; even I get distracted at Mass!

At the same time, what are we doing to avoid distractions and daydreaming? Are we fighting against this? Or is it everytime that we come to Mass we intentionally drift off and daydream as we don’t really want to be here?

This week, after last week's article on the need to prepare well for Mass, let's look at some ways we can prepare for Mass.

Show up early. If you are able, showing up early is the best thing to do. Sometimes we have kids that  dictate our schedule and that it is perfectly fine. If you have the ability, it is great to show up 10-15 minutes before Mass. This time before Mass is not a time to read the bulletin, but rather to talk to God.

Hello, POP faithful. In this bulletin you will find our parish annual financial report. Our fiscal year runs July 1 - June 30 each year. I thought I’d add some of my commentary to the numbers.

First, there is so much for which to be grateful. Our offertory for the last year was about $2.5M. Thank you so much for your generosity. This really reflects your love of God, the Catholic faith, and Prince of Peace. Our offertory also increased about 3% this past year, thank you!!!

Recently I have received some questions about what we should be doing before Mass.

After the Pope’s most recent comments on the American election, I believe that it is an appropriate time for us to approach the topic of voting in the upcoming election. I have also received several emails in regards to this topic, so I have decided to address them here in this Ask Fr. Andrew forum.

Thank you to everyone who has sent in questions so far! There are many great ones that I have received that I hope to answer going forward.

First off, thank you to everyone who has sent in a suggestion for the Ask Father segment of my bulletin articles. Over the coming months I hope to answer many of the questions that you all are asking, or may have, throughout the liturgical year. I am greatly looking forward to this segment!

As summer comes to a close, we begin our new academic year; and with that we are also ending our National Preaching Series on the Eucharist as we have walked through John 6: the Bread of Life Discourse. Over the past month we have journeyed through elements of the Eucharist: Presence, Sacrifice, Communion, and Mission. In case you missed a weekend here or there, I figured that it would be good for us to recap each of these with our final weekend.

Happy Anniversary, Prince of Peace! This Sunday, August 18th, is the 28th anniversary of the dedication of our current parish church. It was on this day in 1996 that our current church was blessed and dedicated by Archbishop Keleher. Concelebrants were Fr. Charles Andalikiewicz, first pastor of POP; Fr. George Bertels, church-building pastor of POP; Fr. Frank Burger, the pastor at the time of the dedication; and Fr. Jerry Volz, who was an associate pastor at the time. Previous to this dedication, we had used what is now the gym as the temporary church.